Corn 

Disease 

Investigations 






BY EUGENE D. FUNK 

(Address, 26th Annual Meeting, Illinois 

Farmers Institute, Danville, 

April 23, 1921.) 



(2d Edition.) 



Illinois 
Farmers' Institute 



H. E. YOUNG, Secretary 

Springfield 
Illinois 



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ILLINOIS FARMERS' INSTITUTE 
1921-1922 

President — Frank I. Mann, Gilman. 

Vice-President — Ralph Allen, Delavan. 

Secretary — H. E. Young, Springfield. 

Auditor-Treasurer — Clayton C. Pickett, Chicago. 



BOARD OF DIRECTORS 

Ex Officio 
Superintendent of Public Instruction — F. G. Blair, Springfield. 
Dean of the College of Agriculture — Eugene Davenport, Urbana. 
Director State Department of Agriculture — B. M. Davison, Springfield. 
President State Horticultural Society — F. H. Simpson, Flora. 
President State Dairymen's Association — J. P. Mason, Elgin. 

Elected by Congressional Districts 

1st Dist. — Wm. E. Meier, Arlington Heights. 
2nd Dist. — August Geweke, DesPlaines. 
3rd Dist.— W. J. Fulton, Tinley Park. 
4th Dist. — H. Clay Calhoun, 915 Lumber Exchange Bldg., Chicago. 
5th Dist.— C. V. Gregory, 223 W. Jackson boul., Chicago. 
6th Dist. — L. C. Brown, LaGrange. 
7th Dist. — Chas. Gray, 5514 University ave., Chicago. 
8th Dist.— Arthur C. Page, 523 Plymouth Court, Chicago. 
9th Dist.— Clayton C. Pickett, 1241 1st Nat. Bk. bldg., Chicago. 
10th Dist. — John E. Barrett, Prairie View. 
11th Dist.— J. P. Mason, Elgin. 
12th Dist.— Geo. F. Tullock, Rockford. 
13th Dist.— W. G. Curtiss, Stockton. 
14th Dist.— G. A. Switzer, Macomb. 
15th Dist. — Frank S. Haynes, Geneseo. 
16th Dist.— Ralr.h Allen. Delavan. 
17th Dist. — S. B. Mason, Bloomington. 
18th Dist.— F. I. Mann, Gilman. 
19th Dist. — J. B. Burrows, Decatur. 
20th Dist. — G. G. Hopping, Havana. 
21st Dist.— W. E. Holben, Edinburg. 
22nd Dist. — E. W. Burroughs, Edwardsville. 
23rd Dist.— O. L. Wakefield, Robinson. 
24th Dist.— D. M. Marlin, Norris City. 
25th Dist.— R. E. Muckelroy, Carbondale. 

DEPARTMENT OF HOUSEHOLD SCIENCE 

President— Dr. Eva M. Wilson, Manhattan. 
First Vice President— Mrs. S. E. Bradt, DeKalb. 
Second Vice President— Mrs. W. H. Heath, Danville. 
Secretary— Mrs. H. A. McKeene, Springfield. 



[Printed by ^fg^^YO^^c^a^gl Iflinois.] 

SEP 2 8 lidciD 

DOCUMENTS 



CORN DISEASE INVESTIGATIONS 

\q (By Eugene D. Funk.) 

This subject dates back to 1892, when I first began my experi- 
ments with the investigation for improvement of better corn and 
farm seeds. I had just returned from a study of agricultural con- 
ditions in European countries where I found in many cases one acre 
of ground producing an income equivalent to three acres of our land 
here in this comparatively new and fertile country, and the lesson 
that I brought home with me was far-reaching and helped to shape 
my future life and study of American agriculture. 

In Roosevelt's stories of the "Winning of the West" he tells of 
an old Indian Chief whose name was "Corn Stalk." His hunting 
ground was in Kentucky, along the Ohio river, and I often wonder 
under what unusual conditions this brave warrior received the name 
of "Corn Stalk." To us, throughout the middle west how common 
is the name "Corn Stalk" and yet, to be frank, how little we know 
about this most wonderful of all grain producing plants. Discovered 
by Columbus with the Indians, the American farmer has continued to 
grow corn for almost seven hundred years. Poems and eulogies have 
been written of corn and yet the youngest person in this audience 
can remember when the first real scientific study of the corn plant 
began. Recent investigation leads us to where we are becoming 
more or less aroused to the fact that our corn fields are not producing 
the yields that they should and that the plant, upon which we depend 
so much for a livelihood, is being attacked, not only with one disease, 
but with many diseases. 

It is conservatively estimated that the corn crop of the United 
States is being reduced twenty per cent. A few years ago we at- 
tributed a short crop of corn to the climatic or soil conditions, or 
poor seed ; now we have every reason to know that much of the loss 
is due to root rot and other diseases. 

Let me say here, with much emphasis, — although I do not wish 
to be classed as an alarmist, if the infection keeps spreading at the 
present rate these diseases of root, ear and stalk, will cut the yield 
forty or fifty per cent under conditions that are favorable for their 
development. In five years from now, unless we get busy and fight 
this enemy, we can look for yields fifty per cent of what they 
should be. 

It was in 1913 that our attention was first brought to the realiza- 
tion that our corn breeding work was being seriously handicapped 
by some unknown disease, but our records show to us clearly that 
we had more or less of the trouble as far back as 1900. 

Some Interesting History. 

The first real study of corn breeding was begun about 1890, by 
the Illinois Corn Breeders Association, composed of a few men, who, 
as individuals, had been for a number of years selecting corn in 
various ways and saving what they considered the best seed to plant 
their fields each succeeding year. These men lived on their farms, 



scattered over various sections of the state, but among them, of 
course, there was a leader, although it must be said he was not a 
corn breeder. He was known, and proud to be known, as the ' ' Corn 
Crank. ' ' His name was E. S. Fursman and he lived at El Paso, Illi- 
nois. He dreamed about corn and he talked corn, and I have seen 
him talking to all the men in a smoking car all the way to Chicago — 
over one hundred miles — about corn. Many of them did not know 
what an ear of corn looked like, but talked on. Another man who 
was the owner and editor of an agricultural paper — Orange Judd, — 
together with Mr. Fursman, conceived the idea of holding a corn 
show at Peoria, Illinois. Through the efforts of these two men, the 
men who afterwards formed the Illinois Corn Breeders Association 
became acquainted with each other and resulted in many warm and 
close friendships. These men met periodically and discussed the 
problems of corn improvement. Each of these members had his own 
ideas regarding what constituted the best type and his own theories 
as to how to improve the yield. None had any practical experience 
in corn breeding, with the exception of James Reid, of Delavan, Illi- 
nois, who had worked in Reid's Yellow Dent for fifty years in a way 
that is now considered crude. 

At first our association had eighteen members and about eigh- 
teen different ideas as to the right type to grow, but after consider- 
able discussion we compromised and decided that the rought type 
was the ideal one to produce in the corn belt. We formulated a score 
card, working out mathematically the ideal ear, — cylindrical, car- 
rying this type from tip to butt, and well covered at both ends with 
deep, medium rough, wedge shape kernels. We undertook to grow 
strains from all varieties we had that would measure up closely to 
the ideal we had conceived. 

At that time there were seven varieties recognized as a standard 
for the middle west: Reid's Yellow Dent, Learning, Boone County 
White, Silver Mine, Riley's Favorite, Golden Eagle and Champion 
White Pearl. With what we know now, at the present time, it is 
interesting to recall that Mr. Reid originally favored the smooth 
type of corn, but was overruled by the other members of the associa- 
tion who were confident that the rough ear was a better and more 
profitable ear to grow. 

In 1902 the Funk Brothers incorporated a seed company. Two 
of the members of the firm were members of the association and had 
been producing seed corn for several years. We had been growing 
a fairly smooth type of corn, but in order to be with the majority, 
we adopted the rougher type. On the large acreage in our farms we 
could carry on work with all the varieties listed as standard. It was 
possible to select strains and carry them along for four or five years 
with big yields. Then almost invariably and to our surprise those 
highest yielding strains of rough type corn would go all to pieces 
and fall down in yield to less than the average farms in the neigh- 
borhood. Instead of getting ahead, Ave were losing out and we could 
not understand it. Many times we were discouraged almost to the 
point of giving up the business. 



Seven- Year Test of Seven Corn Types. 

Professor P. G. Holden was with us at the time, and he was 
such an advocate of the scorecard corn, — the medium rough type, — 
that I conceived an experiment that would test out the relative value 
of different types of corn. I started by selectiug seven types of corn 
of the same variety (Learning) and secured the seed from two dif- 
ferent sources. One lot came from E. E. Chester, of Champaign, and 
the other from J. H. Coolidge, of Galesburg. The seven types ran 
from the extreme smooth to the extreme rough. These various types 
were planted in separate rows, usually one-half acre to each type, 
and I carried on the experiment for seven years. In the corn from 
the Chester farm the smooth type out-yielded the rough, six times 
out of seven, and that coming from the Coolidge farm the smooth 
type was the best five years out of seven. 

At the annual meeting of the Illinois Corn Growers at Champaign 
in 1909, I presented this evidence and showed the samples of corn, 
and I nearly started a riot. About the only person in the audience 
who agreed with me was Mr. Reid, who was then seventy years old, 
and he danced like a schoolboy and said, "I told you so; now I am 
going home and tend to my own knitting. ' ' 

This discovery of the superiority of the smooth type, together 
with the ideas that Mr. Reid had held for so many years, caused us 
to do a good deal of thinking when we returned home. Some other 
things happened that caused us to study some more. We were test- 
ing our corn for germination. Our germinators were giving us all 
sorts of trouble, at least we thought it was the fault of the germina- 
tor. We spent thousands of dollars trying to get a germinator that 
would prove satisfactory. All kinds of patented arrangements were 
used. We tried various materials and home-made gereminators as 
well as disinfectants. When we put a few kernels from single ears 
in a square we found that here and there the kernels would mold. 
Some of these moldy kernels would germinate one hundred per cent. 
At first we paid no attentoin to the mold, especially when the corn 
germinated. Later we found that the infection had spread to large 
areas on the germinator and frequently we threw away a large 
quantity of corn. For years we were not alive to the source of the 
trouble, but blamed the germinator" 

In 1913 James R. Holbert, who was then a student of Purdue 
University, came to my farm to spend his summer vacation. He 
asked if he might have some practical experience, and I sure gave 
him what he asked for. I first put him in the hay field and on the 
corn plows, later on an old planter wheel, dragging between the rows 
to form a dust mulch. We found Mr. Holbert to be above the average 
student. He wrote his graduation thesis from some of the work that 
he did with us, and after graduating he asked if he might come back 
and work for the Seed Company. In the meantime we had come to 
the conclusion that the root system of the corn plant needed fully as 
much attention as the stalk or ear. In other words, there was more 
under the ground that we did not know than there was above ground 
that we did know. Mr. Holbert was put to studying the root system 
of the corn plant. This immediately led us to investigate the trouble 



we were having with the mold on the germinator. Holbert and I 
worked on this for three years before we said anything about it. By 
this time we had discovered that the corn plants throughout the 
middle west were badly infected bv one or more diseases. 



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In the fall of 1916 when Mr 
man, had finished gathering; all 



Holbert and his assistant, Mr. Tie- 
the varieties and strains from the 
breeding blocks they asked me if I could pick from the seven varie- 
ties the rows that had given the highest and lowest yields. When I 



pointed them out, and did not make a single mistake, they were two 
surprised boys. I then asked them to open the old cans that con- 
tained the type of ears that had stood the seven year test when the 
smooth type had out-yielded the rough type. We compared types of 
the crop of 1907 with that of 1916 and found them to be identical. 

Disease Toll National in Extent. 

This gave us conclusive evidence that there was some connection 
between type of corn and the prevalence of the root disease, as well 
as a correlation between type and yield. It occurred to me that 
since the corn disease was threatening to be national in character, I 
decided to take the matter up with the United States Department of 
Agriculture. I had done some work before in co-operation with the 
Agricultural Department, with oats, clover and testing of corn stalks 
for making paper. The government complied with its co-operation, 
and Mr. Holbert became an employee of the Department and has 
been working on the problem ever since. A good deal of progress 
has been made. A lot more investigation remains to be done. It is 
our hope to discover immune strains within varieties. In the absence 
of immune strains, we are planting corn that shows free of infection 
on the germinator and putting this corn in new or clean ground. 

The disease clings to old stalks and on various weeds. Contrary 
to previous teaching we are now burning the stalks to keep the 




Reading the results on the Germination Tests. 



infection out of the soil. These rots are the same as the wheat scab 
and are transmissible from corn to wheat, or vice versa. We do not 
know how long these diseases will remain in the soil, and we are 
asking the Government and the University of Illinois to make a num- 
ber of investigations along this line. Also, we should know what 



effect certain application of fertilizers on the soil may have toward 
preventing the disease. We should try to find out if there is any 
bad effect on livestock fed on infected corn. As you see, there is a 
lot of work to be done and some of this should be carried out in 
various parts of the corn belt. The south should be particularly in- 
terested, because of the warm, moist climate, the molds will multiply 
more rapidly and will live through the winter more readily in that 
territory. I have seen cribs of corn in the south in which more than 
eighty per cent was infected. 






^ 




What the Germinator shows — Badly diseased corn in foreground; healthy 

corn in background. 

We do not know how long these diseases have been taking toll 
of the corn crop, but it seems certain that many farmers do not 
realize the productive possibilities of their fields. Our corn fields 
should yield at least twentj per cent more than they are yielding. 
It is important that the farmer should know the way the disease 
affects the corn, for it is the connecting link between one crop and 
the next. Kotting often causes the rear shanks to break, or it dis- 
colors them and causes them to show shredded butts when the ear 
is removed from the stalk. Good looking- ears should be under 



suspicion if they hang too low or are on broken or rotted shanks. 
Sometimes a whole ear is soggy or parts of it may have a dry mold. 
The kernels on diseased ears in many cases are very rough, with 
shrunken kernels that are dull in color and ears containing starchy 
kernels should be avoided. 

Select Healthy Seed. 

In a bulletin prepared by Mr. Holbert and Mr. Hoffer they say : 
"The results of extensive experiments indicate that the best ears are 
those that ripen on good, normal, upright stalks that remain green 
while the husk turns yellow to brown and the ears become firm. The 
best ears usually are not borne perfectly erect, nor do they hang 
straight down. They are borne on unbroken, unrotted shanks and 
show no indications of rotting of the kernels. The kernels of such 
ears are firm with dents, rather shallow and smooth, and have a 
bright color." 

By the use of the germinator we can pick out nearly all of the 
dangerous ears and have an unusually strong lot of seed. The ordi- 
nary four or five days' test is not sufficient. When the temperature 
is 85 to 88 degrees, seven or eight days will be needed. A lower 
temperature will require ten to twelve days. Very starchy kernels 
absorb water more readily and may look better at first than the more 
horny ones. The strength of the sprouts and its roots will tell part 
of the story. Kernels from diseased ears will usually develop molds, 
but even healthy looking ones should be split open with a knife to 
see if there is any rotting on the inside. 

We will now note the pictures : The first one shows the seven 
types of ears originally selected for the test for which I took seven 
years to demonstrate and prove a theory. Taking the extreme rough 
and running to the extreme smooth, we find that the smooth ear in 
the Chester corn yielded the best six out of seven years, ranging from 
four to eight bushels during the seven years. The two center ears 
were the ideal ears selected by the score card, but the smooth ear 
on the right gave the highest yield. 

Now we come to the testing on the germinator. We put the 
kernels from each ear on the table, starting in each case with the 
kernel from the butt, taking them from around the ear in a spiral 
shape, going up to the tip, so that taking the test and reading it 
from the germination record we can tell whether the butt or the 
middle or the point of the ear is infected, and to what degree, and 
in that way keeping a complete record. 

The picture shows the germinators, and the men reading the 
corn, and making the record from each ear. 

Now note the pictures showing the germinating corn, first, as 
they appear on the germinator, and then the individual seedlings. 
While some are healthy, others are more or less infected, and some 
are very moldy. Under ordinary conditions that slightly infected 
would be planted and would grow and make a stalk of corn, but 
would never produce a good sized ear. We are at that point today, 
where we have ninety per cent of nubbins. The ears are all less in 



10 




11 

size than they should be, and only ten per cent of good ears of corn 
in our fields. We should have the reverse, or ninety per cent of good 
ears and only ten per cent of the nubbins. 

Poor Stands Due to Disease. 

Another picture shows the difference in root development, the 
one on the right being free of disease and the one on the left being 
slightly affected. We have carefully dug and washed the roots of 
many corn plants to the depth of six feet in the ground. It takes 
very careful inspection to eliminate the slightly diseased ears. 

The next illustration shows a test plat of free-of-disease seed 
on the left and diseased seed on the right, planted at the same time. 
We have often tested our corn and found it ninety-five or ninety- 
eight per cent of a stand in the field, and then later on we have gone 
back to the field and counted the stand of corn, and found that the 
field had dropped down to seventy-eight or eighty per cent in stand. 
The answer is that this corn gets through the ground, perhaps be- 
comes four or five inches high, and then because of this disease it dies 
and never gets any farther I have seen corn wilting and dying, and 
I would swear that the boys cut the roots off with the plow, when 
disease is just as likely to be the cause. 

A stalk cut through the center is also shown, illustrating the 
root infection. This is a new root disease. We found this just last 
summer. I think it is called the "Purple Stalk," but we don't know 
very much about it. Corn not only has one disease, but we have so 
far found seven. 

Disease in corn generally shows in the foliage losing its color 
and the leaves beginning to curl. Of course, droughts affect corn, 
but it affects those plants first which are. diseased. They haven't 
the root system so the moisture can go through the plant, and for 
that reason they curl up during a dry season. 

A still more readily recognized corn disease is what so many 
saw last summer. Even riding in an automobile at forty miles an 
hour you could see yellow tassels scattered through the field. This is 
the result of a disease called "pink stalk barrenness" which usually 
affects the ear after the stalk has gotten to a mature stage. As a rule 
the stalk is full size and yet we have the barren ears. We may have 
a cob with a few kernels on it. The roots may not seem to be so 
badly infected with the root rot. 

Root Rot Troubles — Avoid Brace Roots. 

Now we are getting down to the root rot trouble where the roots 
are practically all gone and there is nothing left but the brace roots. 
You will notice a diseased plant will often send out brace roots, 
nature trying to overcome the lack of a root system in the ordinary 
condition. That is just contrary to what we used to think. We used 
to save seed corn from the stalks that had the best brace roots on 
them. That is one of the most suspicious signs of disease we have 
today. We very rarely save seed from the stalk that has a number 
of brace roots. We almost always find later on that seed produced 
from that plant is infected. 



12 



Disease may affect the plant in several different places, largely 
in the roots, but it may noi always infect it so much in the root. 
There is more than one disease. It may go on to the stalk, then it 
may wait until it gets to the ear stage, and even up to the ripening 
of the ear and then attack it. 

Q. Is the infection usually in the ground permanently or is it 
in the seed corn when planted? 

Mr. Funk: It is in both. We have found it in the seed corn. 
We have had years of experience in that line, and we have learned 
that it remains in the soil at least three years. That is one of the 
points on which I am asking your co-operation, the University of 
Illinois and other universities, and the Government, to help us solve 
some of these problems, to find out how long it remains in the soil, 
what kind of soil it remains in, and how we can get rid of it. That is 
what we are asking the experiment people to*help us in. Of course, 
we have to help them in order to get it done. 

Q. How can we tell if it is in 
the seed? 

Mr. Funk : From the germina- 
tor, by germinating corn and test- 
ing. If, by looking at an ear and 
noticing, the ear has a clear shank, 
if it was broken off from the stalk, 
whether it broke off clear or 
whether it had a torn, pithy-like 
appearance in the cob. You want 
to avoid anything of that kind. 
AVhen the ear is of a bright, bril- 
liant luster you can depend upon 
it being fairly free of disease. 
If it is of a dark color, looks 
as though it might have been 
bleached in the sunlight, or some- 
thing of that kind, or if it has a 
rough, starchy kernel, I would 
avoid an ear of that kind. 

Q. Is there any danger of the 
diseased ear infecting other ears 
in the same plot? 

Mr. Funk: Yes, sir. If both 
kinds of stalks are in a hill to- 
gether I would not select an ear 
for seed at all, no matter how 
good it seems. Having been in 
the same hill I would figure it to 
be almost as much infected as the 
diseased one. 
Q. When one uses one crop of corn after another would the 
disease be more prevalent? 

Mr. Funk : Where you plant crop after crop on the same field 
you will have more trouble every year. As I said before, you will 




Free-from-Disease Seedling. 



13 



find this disease remains on your corn stalks. We have had plants 
where I knew no corn had been for three years, and we had the 
disease on these plants. 

Avoid brace roots. The inner nodes on plants having a large 
number of brace roots are invariably dark brown, cutting off circula- 
tion. We used to have as good corn as we have today, and I don't 
know but what we had better, but we did not have the diseases 
twenty years ago that we have today in so virulent form, and that 
is the reason why we have to be so careful at this time. 

Mr. Holbert : I would like to bear out Mr. Funk in his state- 
ment that the extra good ears, the disease-free ears, do not come 
from such stalks with brace roots. Ordinarily as a rule they come 
out of the stalks which do not have the roots above the ground. 
However, that is one of the reasons why I would insist on getting 
extra well matured ears off cf a standing stalk that is maturing 
normally, with the stalk still green, with the shank sound. If you 
have that I think the other things will take care of themselves. 

Seed Treatment Not Effective. 

Q. If we can treat oats for smut successfully and potatoes for 

scab, why can't we treat corn? 

Mr. Funk : Up to the present 
time every treatment we have been 
able to give corn and kill the dis- 
ease has also killed the germ. It 
is a little different problem from 
killing smut on oats, as the smut 
on oats is outside of the shell. 
Perhaps you can help us solve this 
problem. We are waiting with 
open arms to get help on this thing 
in every way. It is not a one man's 
job, nor a two-man's job, nor one 
agricultural university's job; it is 
a national proposition, and if any 
man has got an idea let him bring 
it forward. The door is open to 
every one. If we won't do this we 
are going to wake up some of these 
days and have some drastic laws 
along these lines. May be some of 
us will say, "We better not grow 
corn from the next three years, or 
five." I hope we will get away 
from it and not have to resort to 
anything of that kind. 
Q. Do you find that the white corn roots go deeper than the 

yellow corn ? 

Mr. Funk : No, I could not say that. We have not tried yellow 

against white, but I can say that there is very little or no difference, 

everything else being equal. 




Badly Rotted Seedling. 



14 




Badly Diseased Seedling showing rotted 
portions on interior of kernel. This 
type of disease can be detected only by 
sectioning the seeding at time germina- 
tion test is read. 



Now we come to the com- 
parison of the rough type of 
corn with the smooth type. I 
will give you an illustration : 
A man from one of the coun- 
ties in this state sent to us 
twelve hundred ears last fall 
to make the germination test. 
He was a man who had in 
previous years been showing 
corn at various shows and 
was considered a good corn 
grower. We thought his boys 
must have put something 
over on him and slipped in 
twenty ears of smooth va- 
riety type of corn among 
these twelve hundred, for in 
the whole bunch, the only 
cars that passed as free of 
disease were those twenty 
ears. The rest were a rough 
type and badly diseased. 

That bears out the state- 
ment that I have been trying 
to impress most of all, be careful and avoid the rough or chaffy ears, 
the ears that have too much starch, and the immature looking ears. 

We have found infected ears coming from a corn field that had 
been planted to corn, then in oats followed by wheat, the three-year- 
old com stalks remaining on the ground were turned under. The 
field was planted the third year to corn that had been tested and 
then last fall we found wherever the hills would happen to be grow- 
ing over an old infected corn stalk, and we found more than one 
of them, we found the stalk or ears affected. 

Q. In four years will they come back again .' 
Mr. Funk: I will answer that next year, and then I will take 
another year. This investigation will take at least seven years 
before I can answer that definitely. 

Q. Will the disease develop more on fresh land, where you 
try to grow one crop after the other? 

Mr. Funk: No, sir: I would not say that, on perfectly fresh 
land, unless you should plant badly infected seed, but where yon 
plant corn, three, four and five years, consecutively. 

Q. Will the disease be carried through the corn stalk from one 
year to the other more readily than through the root? 

Mr. Funk: I should say both. That is another thing we should 
determine. I wish I could answer it definitely. 

More Investigation Needed. 

Q. Does this disease of the corn, or of the root, in your opinion, 
have any effect on live stock ? 



15 



Mr. Funk : That is exactly what I have asked in seeking the 
aid of the United States Government, the University of Illinois, and 
any other university, and there is no reason why we could not try 
it out in Illinois. I have my suspicions that it is a fact. That is not 
based entirely on theory. I think a lot of this so-called corn stalk 
disease where we are losing horses and cattle, is due to the very 
trouble we are studying now, although I can't prove it, it is too big 

a proposition. Funk brothers have 
spent a hundred thousand dollars 
in the investigation of this thing 
and I am willing to go ahead, but 
it is quite beyond me, clear beyond 
me. It is too big a proposition ; 
it is a national proposition, a state 
and national proposition. I think 
you will all agree with me that we 
deserve a little help. You are wel- 
come to come and examine our 
plant at any time, we will give you 
all the assistance that we can, be- 
cause it is a national proposition. 
We are not trying to keep any- 
thing from anybody. If you are 
a seed man you are welcome ; if 
you are a farmer you are also wel- 
come ; even the preacher or lawyer 
is welcome. 

Q. Is it possible for the disease 
to be distributed by cattle? 

Mr. Funk: That is another 
question I can't answer, sir, al- 
though I have in mind a very deep 
thought along that line. The 
scientists won't agree with me 
that that is possible, but I find 
that the scientists and even myself 
are wrong sometimes, and I wish 
that could be worked out. 

Q. Could there be anything in 
the so-called commercial fertilizer 
that would cause the corn to be- 
come diseased! 

Mr. Funk : Well, I hardly think 
so with a fine commercial fer- 
tilizer, for the reason that, as a 
rule, the ingredients that go into 
a commercial fertilizer must go' 
through a process of heat. In such 
Roots of healthy corn plant on left; ingredients as would carry the 
roots of badly diseased corn disease, the heat would kill any 

plant on right. germ in the commercial fertilizer. 




16 



Of course, it would not be carried in raw rock phosphate, that would 
be out of the question. It would not be carried iu limestone. It 
might be carried in some of the filler, that might be possible, but I 
don't think that would be hardly probable. 

Q. Is there any difference in the chances that diseased corn has 
in different types of soil? 

Mr. Funk: Yes, sir. The plant food naturally in a fertile, rich 
soil would help, to a certain degree, to overcome the disease, but 
if you put the seed into poor soil with lack of fertility, naturally 
that plant could not keep up with its brother in the better soil. I 
think that would be only a matter of reasoning. I don't think it 
would require even an experiment to try out that kind of a test. 

Fighting Disease in the Field. 

The question is asked whether the disease remained in the soil. 
We have found hills of corn where it had grown over an old corn 
stalk, which after three years became badly infected. Here is one of 

the stalks, the roots and the ears. 
Here is the root, you see, pulled 
up. I found this one myself. I 
was out in the field helping the 
boys select some seed corn, and I 
came across this hill of corn. I 
looked at the ear first, sized up the 
stalk, and then I pulled the shuck 
down and I found the ear was 
moldy. It attracted my attention. 
I looked at the shuck on the other 
stalk in the same hill, and I found 
that it held a nubbin, and I said, 
"Of course I don't want that ear 
for seed," but I still looked far- 
ther, and down at the bottom, 
sizing up the plant, I decided to 
pull it up. It came up so easy it 
surprised me. I found there was 
no root system at all. Further in- 
vestigation showed that there was 
a piece of the old corn stalk that 
had been there for three years to 
my personal knowledge. This field 
had been planted with free-of- 
disease seed. After that I found 
several others of the same kind 
which is proof that it remains in 
the soil three years. How much 
longer we don't know. 

Q. Would you advocate burn- 
ing the corn stalks? 

Mr. Funk : Yes, sir ; that is what 
I Avould advocate ; I would advo- 
cate that very thing. 




Healthy corn plant on left; diseased 
corn plant on right. 



17 

Q. Would it eradicate any of the disease? 

Mr. Funk: It would be better than putting the disaese back 
into the soil. 

Q. Will you retain as much fertility by burning the stalks as 
you will be plowing them under? 




Interior of badly diseased corn plant— Note the poor root system 
and rotted nodes. 



Mr. Funk : Yes, sir ; you will retain the fertility but you will 
lose the humus. You can afford to lose some humus in order to get 
rid of the disease right now. 

Q. When you have stalks in your field of corn that have smut 
on them, what would you do? 



18 

Mr. Funk : I would plant that field to something else than corn 
the next year. 

Q. Burn the stalks? 

Mr. Funk : Yes, sir. Of course, you understand smut is another 
proposition, that is another disease from those we have been dis- 
cussing. 

Q. Will you touch on the relationship existing between the 
root rot in corn and the scab in wheat ? 

Mr. Funk: "We have found that we can transfer the fusarium 
disease of corn on to wheat, or vice versa. The spore that gets 
on the wheat from the old corn stalks or weeds, or residue that 
might be in the field, depends upon the climatic condition at the 
time of the blooming of the wheat head. It would depend upon the 
climatic condition, as to whether the infection would occur to any 
alarming extent. I think it was three years ago that we had the 
scab so badly. Climatic conditions, moisture and all that sort of 
thing was ideal for the spores to grow and to light on to the wheat 
blossom just at the time when it was susceptible to taking on this 
scab, this disease. Last year, of course, the dry conditions were 
unfavorable to the propagation of the spores and we had very little 
wheat scab last year. It all depends on the season. 

Q. Is wheat straw dangerous to the corn crop? We have stacks 
of last year's wheat straw in the field. Our clover stand there was 
poor, probably we have to break up some of that clover. If we 
scatter that straw on the ground what effect will that have on corn? 

Mr. Funk: I would not be afraid of it at all, because we had 
very little scab last year. That wheat straw is probably 99 per cent 
free of the disease. 

Q. Would you be alarmed if it was not free from scab? 

Mr. Funk: I would be alarmed then, I certainly would sir; I 
would burn it up. 

Q. Do you know whether the disease would exist in manure, 
and how long it would remain in the manure ? 

Mr. Funk: That is another question that I am asking the Uni- 
versity to help solve. I don't know how long it will remain in the 
manure. I am hauling about two to three thousand loads of it most 
every year. I haven't been able to solve it. It will take some years 
to solve that very question. I wish somebody else would take it up 
and help to do it. 

Q. You made the statement that there was no loss in fertility 
outside of the loss in organic matter. How would you spread the 
corn stalk ashes over the field ? 

Mr. Funk : You could not do it, sir. 

Q. Then you are losing some fertility? 

Mr. Funk : Losing it in the way of not getting the ashes uni- 
formly scattered over the field, yes, sir; that is true, but I would 
not say, under the circumstances, I was losing by burning. 

Mr. Abbott : Will the roots of diseased corn planted in the 
soil remain in a diseased condition? If the roots of the corn plants 
were diseased wouldn't the soil remain in a diseased condition, even 
thouffh you did burn the corn stalks? 



19 

Mr. Funk: If the disease is in the root, naturally, you can't 
burn the roots very well. If it is in the root it is in the stalk also. 
Mr. Abbott : May it not be in the kernel also? 
Mr. Funk : Yes. 

Q. Is it spread through the soil away from the root ? Suppose 
you destroy the root and the stalk, would that destroy the disease? 




Field of corn planted with Free-from-Disease Seed — 40 acres averaged 95 
bushels per acre — No special soil treatment was used. 



20 

Mr. Funk: Of course, if it hasn't anything to live on it dies. 
If there is something to live on it exists. It has to attach itself on 
to something. 

Q. Is the evidence of the disease on wheat in the head of the 
wheat ? 

Mr. Funk : Yes, sir. 

Q. Will, the disease develop more in unbalanced soil than it 
will in balanced soil? 

Mr. Holbert : This year we started investigations at the Uni- 
versity by planting diseased seeds on every one of the soil plots that 
are now in rotation, so in a few years we will be able to answer that 
question very accurately. I might say that the difference in yield 
between diseased seed and disease-free seed is greater on poor soil 
than it is on very fertile soil. However, the addition of limestone, 
manure and rock phosphate increases the yield of disease-free seed 
much more. For instance, by the addition of manure, limestone 
and rock phosphate you can increase the yield of diseased seed from 
fifty-six bushels up to eighty-three, but if we had used disease-free 
seed we would have had ninety-seven. Those are the results from 
the Davenport fields of 1919, and very similar with the three-year 
result that we had. 

All Corn Fields Infected. 

Mr. Funk: There isn't a corn field in the United States that 
hasn't this disease, from Maine to California. If you have been 
making a selection along the line of free-of -disease seed I think you 
are all right. 

Q. You say all corn fields are diseased? 

Mr. Funk : Every field, sir, has some disease, so far as the 
government experts tell us. Every field that they have visited they 
have found this disease more or less. There is one state that has 
less, perhaps, than others, but it isn't considered a corn state — 
Virginia. 

Q. What is the particular disease mentioned? 

Mr. Funk : There are at least seven of them, sir, some of which 
have not been named. 



21 




Eugene D. Funk and his four sons. From right to left — Eugene D., Sr. 
Lafayette, Jr.; Paul: Theodore; Eugene, D., Jr. 



22 

Score Card for Utility Corn. 
(Adopted by the Illinois Corn Growers' Association.) 

Perfect 
General Appearance — Score 

Indentation 5 

Kernel Composition 5 

Kernel Characterisl ics .... 10 

Shank Attachments 10 

Tip of Ears '. 5 

Luster or Polish 10 

Type and Uniformity — 

Type 5 

Length 5 

Color 5 

General Uniformity 5 

Germination Record — 

Vitality and Vigor 20 

Freedom from Disease Symptoms 15 

Total 100 

General Appearance 45 

Indentation 5 

Ears with distinctly rough chaffy indentation are ferquently imperfectly matured owing to 
the presence of disease. Very rough indentation is objectionable and will be discriminated 

against. 

Kernel Composition 5 

Starchy seed ears produce many diseased plants which give unsatisfactory yields. 

Kernel Characteristics 10 

Kernels from normally matured healthy ears are nearly always thick, plump, bright and 
clean, and possess well developed germs. Such kernels usually have distinctly horny endosperm. 

Shank Attachments 10 

Many ears which have pink, slightly pink, brown, or shredded shank attachments were pro- 
duced on diseased stalks. Frequently such ears may have an otherwise good appearance but 
whenever any of the above symptoms are found the car should lie discarded. (Note: All 
ears must have the shank attachments intact just as the ear was broken from the stalk. Any 
effort to trim out or alter the shank appearance will eliminate I he sample from competition.) 

Tips of Ears 5 

The tips of the ears should be bright and free from "weathering" or discoloration of any kind. 

Luster or Polish 10 

Ears having a bright, rather oily appearance have proven themselves superior as seed ears. 
This appearance indicates a normal, healthy development and complete maturity and is asso- 
ciated with greater vigor. Such ears possess higher yielding qualities than ears which are 
rather dull, dead or dry looking and which have no bistc;. 

Type and Uniformity 20 

'Type 5 

Kernels from the different ears should be uniform in size and shape. 

Length 5 

The sample should conform to the accepted standards of length as approved by the State Corn 
and Grain Growers' Associations. 

Color 5 

The shade of color of the different ears in the sample and from different portions of the 
same ear should be uniform. 

General Uniformity 5 

All ears in the sample should be uniform in shape. 

Germination Record 35 

Vitality and Vigor 20 

The seedlings in the germination test should show thick, sturdy sprouts, and good root de- 
velopment. Tall, slender, weak seedling- and those having short slender feeder roots are not 
desirable. 

Freedom from Disease Symptoms 15 

A moldy discolored condition of the kernels near the point of attachment to the cob indicates 
disease. 



23 



SOME INSTITUTE PUBLICATIONS 

Annual Report, 1895-1921. (Handbook of Agriculture.) 

Annual Bulletin, 1901-1921. 

Illinois Farmers' Institute — Organization, Object and Activities. 

Illinois — Mighty Agricultural Patriot. 

Lectures on Poultry Husbandry. (Circular No. 3.) 

Important Insects of Truck Gardens. (Circular No. 4.) 

Suggestions for Corn Contests. (Circular No. 5.) 

Principles and Practices of Land Drainage. (Circular No. 7.) 

Ways to Win With Wheat. 

A Liberty Garden for Every Home. 

Poultry Helps in War Time. 

The Farmer and the War. 

Limestone and Phosphate. 

Phosphate Storage Bins. 

Corn Disease Investigations. 

Modern Agriculture in Southern Illinois. 

Score Cards for:- — Corn, Potatoes, and Oats. 



DEPARTMENT OF HOUSEHOLD SCIENCE PUBLICATIONS 

Department of Household Science Year Book — 1898-1921. 
Nutritive Value of Food. (Circular No. 1.) 
Organizations of Household Science Clubs (Circular No. 2.) 
Course of Study for Household Science Clubs. (Circular No. 3.) 
Canning, Drying and Storing of Fruits and Vegetables. (Bulletin 

No 4 
Score Cards for: — Canned Fruits, Jellies, Fancy Work, Sewing, 
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002 811 118 6 




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